The present invention relates to the safety of people and equipment, in particular in the viticultural field, and concerns a safety device for a membrane press.
In presses of the above-mentioned type, materials are pressed by the action of a membrane which is fixed in the tank of the press and which, on the side remote from that being applied to said materials, is subjected to the action of a pneumatic pressure by inflation of the volume which it defines with the corresponding part of the wall of the tank.
On the side in contact with the materials to be pressed, the tank of the press comprises an opening which may be closed by a door, in particular during the pressing phases.
However, the pressures used during these phases are high and may prove dangerous. The same applies to the inflatable joints equipping certain press doors.
In fact, in most current pneumatic presses with a membrane, no device is provided which would prevent the membrane and/or the joint from inflating when the door is not closed. The result thereof could be a breakage and a violent explosion of said membranes or said joints likely to cause considerable material damage or even bodily wounds.
Various protection and safety systems have been proposed which detect the closure of the door and allow or prevent pressurisation.
However, these are not sufficiently reliable as they use sensor members, electric or electronic actuators which may prove faulty and the public authorities have recently put out urgent requests, in particular by regulatory means, on using dependable safety means, reliably preventing the inflation of the membrane and/or the joint of a press when the door thereof is not closed and guaranteeing deflation of the membrane and/or the joint prior to any opening of this door (during or after a pressing phase).
The present invention aims to provide a solution to the above-mentioned problem, said solution having to be of simple and robust construction and capable of being easily installed on existing presses, at their sites of use.
The present invention therefore relates to a safety device for a pneumatic membrane press.